Jeb’s Better-Than-Yours Waffles

For years, no waffle recipe out there seemed to have the perfect combination of textures and flavors I wanted: Crispy and brown on the outside.  Tender on the inside.  Cooks in a typical consumer waffle iron. Has enough flavor to compliment a topping besides your typically overpowering American syrup.

And I tried them all:  Alton Brown’s waffles are too doughy. Emeril’s waffles are too soft and cakey. Paula Deen’s waffles are dry and nothing to write home about. Top-rated waffles on AllRecipes.com aren’t crispy or particularly flavorful. Our family recipes were hardly better than Bisquick.  The last recipe I found online, a Joy of Cooking waffle recipe, was so cakey and flavorless that I finally decided to stand up and do something about it.

Credit:

  • Joy of Cooking (inspiration)

Dry Ingredients:

  • 1 3/4 C flour
  • 1 TBS baking powder
  • 2 TBS sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/8 to 1/4 tsp ground cardamom (Tip: If this is your first date with cardamom, don’t overdo it.)

Wet Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 C milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 stick (1/2 C) butter, cut into chunks
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

  • Preheat waffle iron.
  • Whisk together milk and eggs in a medium saucepan. Add the butter and warm over low heat just until butter is melted. This mixture should be warm, but not hot — you don’t want to cook the eggs.
  • Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  • Add vanilla and fold milk mixture into dry ingredients with a large whisk, mixing just until combined. Don’t over-mix: a few lumps are better than over-developed gluten.

Cooking:

  • Cook on waffle iron until medium-brown.  A golden-brown waffle won’t be crispy on the outside.
  • Makes 3 waffles in the larger Belgian waffle makers

Eating:

  • Top as desired, but pouring syrup on more than a quarter or a half waffle at a time will take the crispy away.

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